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Simon Lester

Simon Lester

Co-founder of WorldTradeLaw.net and China Trade Monitor. Non-resident fellow at the Baker Institute.

http://simonlester.com

Sarah Palin on Free Trade

I don't know if Sarah Palin is officially part of any tea party group, but she is certainly identified closely with tea partiers. So, recalling the earlier post about the tea party view of free trade, I thought these Sarah Palin comments on free trade and free trade

Sallie James on GSP

Sallie James of Cato has a good piece on the U.S. GSP program. Here are some snippets. The opening salvo: To the extent that preference recipients jealously guard their special access and resist global efforts to liberalize trade on a nondiscriminatory basis, unilateral preference programs can be counterproductive to

Matt Yglesias on Trade Negotiations

I'm always curious to read what the mainstream press says about trade. They may be a little light on the details, but they have the ability to influence "the masses," which despite our respectable readership here at this blog, we probably don't. Here'

Free Trade and Public Opinion

The other day, I mentioned the polling questions related to the free trade views of the Tea Party. Looking a little more closely at these questions, I noticed something else of interest. One of the questions (see p. 11 of the document) asked was: Do free trade agreements make the

Not Accepting an Amicus Brief at the WTO

A couple months ago, I noted how the Australia - Apples panel "accepted" an amicus brief: "the Panel notified the Parties that it had decided to accept the unsolicited communication received from APAL, and would inform that entity accordingly." However, today's Thailand - Cigarettes (Philippines) panel

ICSID Hearing Livestreaming Right Now

It's the preliminary objections hearing in Commerce Group Corp. and San Sebastian Gold Mines, Inc. v. Republic of El Salvador(ICSID Case No. ARB/09/17). Go here for the feed: http://icsid.worldbank.org/ICSID/FrontServlet?requestType=CasesRH&actionVal=OpenPage&PageType=AnnouncementsFrame&FromPage=Announcements&

Exports and Domestic Demand

President Obama: "countries with large surpluses must shift away from an unhealthy dependence on exports and take steps to boost domestic demand". Is domestic demand too low in China and other countries with trade surpluses? Or is domestic demand too high in the U.S. and other countries

The Chinese Currency Issue and Congress

So the G-20 couldn't deal with the Chinese currency issue. Does that mean Congress will take some action? From The Hill: Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) predicted Sunday that Congress would pick up Chinese currency manipulation after President Obama was rebuffed on the issue at the

Expanding the TPP

Japan might join. And Korea is thinking about it as well. Is an expanded Trans Pacific Partnership a good development for trade agreements, helping create an important new free trade area? Or will adding these large economy countries with sensitive agricultural sectors cause the TPP negotiations to get bogged down

The Tea Party and Free Trade

There has been some talk about the Tea Party and free trade. Dani Rodrik says: "Republicans who support the Tea Party are even more hostile to trade agreements than the rest." He cites to this Pew poll. Similarly, Robert Lighthizer says: "Strangely, for a movement named after